Lifted: A thematic analysis of homeless adolescents’ reflections on their lives since beginning a multifaceted, community-based intervention

•UHY are individuals under the age of 18 who are not living with a parent or guardian.•UHY often access short-term, limited interventions, but wraparound interventions to meet the complex needs of UHY are rare.•Starting Right, Now (SRN) is a unique wraparound intervention designed to meet the needs of UHY through the provision of multiple services and supports.•In this study, nine UHY who had participated in SRN were interviewed about the impact of the program on their lives.•Findings suggested change in three areas: (1) constructing new models of relationships, (2) learning adaptive skills for living, and (3) increasing hope, direction, and purpose. The purpose of this study was to gather in-depth information from unaccompanied homeless youth (UHY) regarding how they perceived that a wraparound intervention in which they had been involved for at least one year had impacted their lives. Towards this end, we conducted individual face-to-face interviews with nine unaccompanied homeless youth (UHY) who were receiving services from Starting Right, Now (SRN), a unique, multifaceted, grassroots initiative located in the southeastern U.S. that provides multiple services to UHY who have remained in high school. These services include housing, one-to-one mentoring, tutoring, assistance with applying to college, and specialized trainings to support academic and personal development. In each interview, participants described how their lives had changed since they entered SRN and what they had learned from the program. Using thematic analysis across participants, we identified eight themes that we saw as fitting within three broad categories: (1) constructing new models of relationships, (2) learning adaptive strategies for living, and (3) increasing hope, direction, and purpose. These three themes coalesced into an overall essence that we termed “lifted.” We chose this term because the totality of participants’ experiences suggested that SRN had lifted participants out of the poverty and trauma of their childhoods and, through a comprehensive approach with personalized supports, helped them get to a place where they could focus on higher-level needs like individual growth and educational attainment. Implications for providing services to UHY are described, and avenues for continuing research to support this population are highlighted.